1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to pill handling machines and, more particularly, relates to an apparatus and an associated method for handling pills with one or more brushes for controlling the movement of the pills.
2) Description of Related Art
Pharmaceutical medicines and associated packaging apparatuses are typically subject to relatively strict consumer protection guidelines. For example, pills, capsules, and the like, must be produced and packaged in such a way as to at least meet the minimum sterility requirements mandated by federal regulations. In addition, the pills should be delivered into the packaging such that the contents accurately meet the claimed labeling “count”, i.e., so that each package includes exactly a predetermined number of pills. Notwithstanding the above, it is also desired to package the product in an automated operation to offset costs and provide an economic product.
In the past, pill filling machines have been proposed that provide automated bottle counts by filling a hopper with pills and causing a plurality of the pills to be caught by a pill capturing device, such as an array of rotary slats. The rotary slats drop the captured pills into a plurality of bottles disposed in alignment with the dropping pills. The bottles are distributed along an endless conveyor belt that is timed to advance and stop the bottles according to the filling operation.
Conventional pill capturing devices more particularly include a series of rotary slats each configured to receive, hold, and move a plurality of capsules or pills along a closed path. Each rotary slat is typically a disc-like device that is fixed on a rotatable shaft and has a plurality of openings in the outer peripheral edge portion thereof for capturing individual pills. Accordingly, the closed path is arcuate and generally disposed between the pill hopper and a discharge area above the conveyor belt. By the rotary action of the slats, the pills move in a direction normal to the conveyor belt. The pill capturing device then generally discharges the pills by rotating the slats, which move corresponding to the closed path, such that the pills fall out of the respective openings at the filling station. The pills are often funneled through a chute that empties into a corresponding bottle.
The “count,” or number of pills in the bottle, can be determined by positioning the bottles in the pill dropping zone for a predetermined time. The duration of the filling operation for each bottle corresponds to the number of openings in each slat that the machine is capable of delivering to the bottles per unit of time. The duration of the filling operation, speed of the rotary slats, and configuration of the pill capturing device are used to calculate the count.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,185,901 to Aylward, titled “Positive Count Rotary Slat Packaging Apparatus and Related Methods,” provides an improved machine with independently driven rotary slats. The pills are allowed to fall from a reservoir into an exterior receptacle of a rotary slat and, a separate counting device is associated with each rotary slat for counting each pill as it falls from the slat into the container. A positive count is provided for each container, and improperly filled slats will not affect the total count for that container. That is, if a particular container has a low count, the respective slat can be further rotated to fill the container. Because the slats are independently driven, the other slats can remain stationary to prevent overfilling. Thus, the machine permits an accurate filling of each bottle.
Although the slats can be independently driven to achieve a desired count in each container, it is typically desirable to dispense pills from most or all of the receptacles to minimize the rotation necessary for filling the container and thereby minimize the time required for filling the container. In this regard, FIGS. 1 and 3 of U.S. Pat. No. 6,185,901 illustrate a cylindrical brush 24 that rotates in the same direction as the slats 15 so that the bottom surface of the brush rotates against the direction of the surface of the slats. This round brush works to help seat the captured pills 11 into the opening 18 and also to divert additional pills from the delivery path. This device has proven to operate very well; however, occasionally pills may fail to fall into the openings or may become jammed in or fall through the area 13 where the bottom of the reservoir 12 meets the rotating slats.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an improved pill handling device that facilitates the delivery of pills into receptacles. The handling device should reduce or minimize the occurrence of jamming of the pills and increase or maximize the placement of the pills in the receptacles to thereby increase the efficacy of the device.